Bicheno (of blowhole fame), is a hour and a half south of Binalong Bay and just north of the midway point on the east coast of Tasmania. The blowhole blows it is true (and we have the photographic evidence), yet ironically, it’s quite a scenic spot.

We arrived and set up at the East Coast Caravan Park Bicheno with a minimum of fuss, as we could kind of back the van straight in. Including the practise runs we had before we left, I reckon I have parked the van (with the aid of Monja and a UHF radio) about twenty three times. It doesn’t get any easier (maybe I’m just a bit of a slow learner), but what I have found is that I now have the attitude that I know I will get it- eventually (never the first time so far). I often win only after a complete lap of the caravan park and a new  approach, but we have always successfully ended up with the van on a site.  It is a process the kids don’t handle well and have no understanding of as far as the amount of concentration and angst required goes, so they are either out of the car, or in it, with me saying “sure play on the ……… (put the name of your favourite electronic device here), just stop hassling me!” Ohh the terrible negotiations after that! “But you said I could play on …. Why do I have to help with set up I’m in the middle of….  But she just had screen time and I didn’t! It’s a wicked web.

I did some more Tassie fishing here and managed to catch a couple of good wrasse and an enormous squid. I turned the wrasse into fish chowder and we ate the squid for breakfast. Fresh squid is hard to beat as a breakfast meal. Maybe I could turn it  into some sort of cereal like squid flakes … no.

We spent the day walking around this picturesque seaside village and then in the afternoon the sun came out and heated us up just enough …. to talk the kids into having our first Tassie swim down at Redbill Beach (apparently known for it’s surf culture). Surf was a bit hit and miss but we had a good refreshing bathe and everyone kind of caught a wave. After initially refusing to contemplate getting wet, Tim eventually admitted that it wasn’t absolutely freezing and that in fact, it was quite possible to swim there without ones limbs dropping off due to hypothermia. It’s never too hard to talk Lou into  getting out into the water once you’re there.

I haven’t had the free time that I had hoped I might on this trip due to my inability to say-  ‘I don’t need to know what’s down that road or across that highway or what that town is like’ and the bread and butter of walking around finding out where local things are and organising day to day stuff like eating and researching our next stop. But when I have had a moment or two that home schooling the kids didn’t cleave away, I have been reconnecting with my artistic side by doing some deeply allegorical drawings. I will try to include them as I  go. Here is the first.

Bicheno is great and it does not need a T in it’s name. And I thank Tasmania for giving us another verevrant place to scope out (PS I made up that ververant word, start using it if you want it to appear in the dictionary in twenty years time).